Follow these steps to make the perfect holiday treat
The holiday season is a time for old traditions to come together with new ones. This holiday season, take the opportunity to create new traditions with these tried and true classics. You can never go wrong with a cheesecake. This recipe is easy to follow and the cheesecake will be ready to please.
The ingredients are: one can of condensed milk, three eggs, one and a half sticks of cream cheese, one-sixth of a queso fresco cheese and a premade pie crust.
Preheat the oven to 345 degrees fahrenheit. Beat the eggs one by one in a bowl, and then add the cream cheese. Next combine this mixture with all of the remaining ingredients until smooth. Then, pour the resulting liquid into the premade pie crust and place into the oven for ten minutes. Wait a couple hours for the cheesecake to cool in the fridge or freezer, and it will be ready to eat.
Sugar cookies may be a year-round favorite, but when the holiday season comes, the best thing to do with these chewy cookies is cut them into Christmas-themed shapes. To make festive sugar cookies, holiday cookie cutters are a must. The ingredients for sugar cookies are: 16 tablespoons of unsalted sugar, ¾ cup of sugar, one egg, one teaspoon of pure vanilla extract, 2 ½ cups of flour, ¼ teaspoon of baking soda and ¼ teaspoon of kosher salt.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Mix the butter and sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer until the two ingredients look smooth. Once mixed, add the egg and mix again. Then add the vanilla extract. Once all of the ingredients have been properly incorporated, grab a bowl and pour in the flour, baking soda and salt. Proceed to mix all of the ingredients together. The dough will be stiff after mixing, so roll it out until it’s roughly one inch flat. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Once the 30 minutes are up, roll the dough again — this time so the dough is ¼ of an inch thick.
After the dough has been rolled, break out those festive cookie cutters. After the cookies are shaped, place the cookies onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until the edges of the cookies are a light golden brown color. After the cookies are baked and have cooled down comes the fun part. Grab any color frosting and sprinkles to decorate.
For those in the family that don’t have the biggest sweet tooth, a coconut ball is sure to impress come dessert time. The cookies are perfect for a snack on the dessert table that everyone will love. The ingredients are: two sticks of unsalted, softened butter, two cups of an all-purpose flour, two cups of sweetened flaked coconut, ¼ teaspoon of salt and ¼ cup of confectioner’s sugar.
To start, grab the electric mixer, and mix the butter and the confectioner’s sugar. Mix until combined and has a fluffy texture. Mix in the flour and salt after until well-combined. Once all of that is done, add in the coconut.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. While the oven is heating up, grab the dough, form one-inch balls and place them on a baking sheet. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the coconut balls have a nice brown color. Rub the coconut balls into the confectioner’s sugar. Do not wait until the coconut balls are cooled to complete this step. The confectioner’s sugar will not stick to the balls unless warm.
Holiday desserts can be fun to make and eat, but there are some that are so cute they’re hard to eat. Polar bear cupcakes are one example. To make them the ingredients are: one chocolate box cake mix, one can of vanilla frosting, three cups of sweetened shredded coconut, 72 brown m&m’s and one package of oreos.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Prepare the cake mix according to its instructions, and pour the cake mix into the cupcake liners. Place the cupcakes into the oven for the amount of time indicated on the box recipe. In the meantime, place the coconut shreddings into a bowl. Once the cupcakes are baked and cooled, frost them and dip the cupcakes into the coconut shreds. Place an oreo at the edge of the cupcake, on top of the frosting. If the cupcake looks too bulky or there are not enough oreos, split the oreo in half and only place one half at the bottom. Stick four M&M’s on top of the oreo so that it resembles a paw. These cupcakes will have everyone wanting to grab one to take home — if not to eat then to simply admire it. They will be sure to leave everyone in awe and wanting to take pictures for their Instagrams.
With these recipes the holiday season will be livelier and everyone will love the baked goods that go along with the festivities. Happy Holidays, Aggies!
Written by: Itzelth Gamboa — arts@theaggie.org
